When TMNT jumped the shark.

[Weapon X]

I was on a site I'm sure some of you here have heard of called "Jump the shark" were the take a Tv show and see when it went downhill well they have every show made, so I got the TMNT section and they gave different catagories and people voted on them. The reasons are on the left and the votes are on the right. The one's I agree with the most is When Shredder and the usual gang of Idiots left, and when Mike started using the grappling hook. The one I dislike the most is Day one. :x The mini series was great in my opinion

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

First Show 1987
Last Show 1996
Genre Cartoon
Network CBS
Slot Day Saturday (Mon-Sat)
Slot Time 10 AM

Jumped The Shark when... Votes
Shredder was removed 9
Never Jumped 7
The Movie 5
Network switch (FOX to CBS) 5
Saturday mornings 2
The Third Movie 2
Singing (The opening theme) 1
Name change in the UK 1
Day One 1
Michelangelo uses the grappling hook 1
Special Guest Star (Vanilla Ice) 1
The Second Season 1
Metallic suits 1
Live action 1

[TournamentFightersOwns]

Although this has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with anything,Earthworm Jim is a fantastic game!'

{PM me if you wanna talk about it,any of the three,or the tv series,or whatever}

:D

[Deathknight]

I don't even understand the votes.

[Straight-Edge]

I understand the voting (they don't actually post winners, just the number of people who felt that moment was when the show 'Jumped').

I don't understand some of the categories.

"Jumping The Shark" is a theoretic point in time where the initial theme of the show/story has become completely lost.

Happy Days was a show about three friends (Richie, Ralph, and Potsy) growing up in the 50's, and their some-times friend, the rebellious Fonzie. When Fonzie's rebellious antics took over the show, it was a change of pace, sure, but the basic concept of growing up in the 50's remained. The focus only skewed slightly.

Fonzie waterskiing, and jumping over a live shark, had absolutely nothing to do with Happy Days. It was a purely about making Fonzie look ever cooler. The focus of Happy Days had abandoned the 'friends in the 50's' origins, and had become all about Fonzie.

In short, Jumping the Shark is the pin-point moment when viewers can no longer deny that the concept has "sold out". Catering to popularity, or making money have become more important than the intergity of the concept.

For TMNT, as a cartoon, my opinion is the concept was about the four guys vs Shredder and Krang. Once that dynamic was lost, the show "Jumped the Shark", because it was no longer about the basic premise. Sure, it was still about Ninja Turtles, but much like the new comic, what those characters were doing no longer served the original premise. Does that mean the Post-Shredder stuff sucked? No. But it is a point where the show continued after it's initial purpose, due mainly to, if not totally based on, its marketable popularity.

The Ninja Turtle cartoon could not have "Jumped the Shark" at the Movie, because the movie had nothing to do with the cartoon. So "The Movie", 'The Third Movie" and "Special Guest Star (Vanilla Ice)" are all counterproductive. If you wanted to say this is where the *movie* Franchise jumped the shark, sure. But they have nothing to do with the Cartoon.

Now, my opinion on these other categories:

Network switch (FOX to CBS): Correct me if I'm wrong, but the network that showed the cartoon had nothing to do with the quality of the show produced. It was when they switched production companies that things eally changed in the show itself.

Saturday mornings: Again, nothing to do with Jumping the Shark. I have to wonder if the people who run this site even understand what they're talking about.

Day One
Singing (The opening theme): Ok, first things first, you can't Jump a Shark at the beginning. What you do on Day One is the standard. Jumping the Shark is when you buck the standard in so obvious a way that viewers can't overlook it.

Name change in the UK
Michelangelo uses the grappling hook
These two are minimal-consequence changes, occuring because of legal entanglements. Mikey using the nuncucks became a youth hazard, because kids began beating people indescriminately. The change was necessary to avoid more lawsuits. The title in anothe country, again, was from the beginning, so it wasn't shark-jumping. In Europe, that was the standard.

[kuro]

I agree with Krang on all his points excpet for one, I feel that "Jumping the Shark" is ont only about the main premise of the show, but the moment the show wasn't as good as it was before it jumped the shark. A lot of people agree that not only did the premise of Happy Days change, but the show just wasn't as good as before.

Also, I highly agree most of those reasons are invalid. I don't think you can't just list the entire second season, you have to list a certain event.

[OA]

Those categories are rediculous...I mean "opening theme song"?!?! Gimme a break...

[TuRtLeTiTaN]

Well lets see i would have to say it never "jumped the shark" but if i had to choose it would be loosing shredder however the show was still good i enjoyed it

[Weapon X]

Well lets see i would have to say it never "jumped the shark" but if i had to choose it would be loosing shredder however the show was still good i enjoyed it

As I said I agree completly and these aren't my reasons so comlain to the site. :roll:

[Jester]

Ha....i feel that around red sky TMNT jumped the preverbial shark because they changed gears significantly....it got darker....which is cool but after 6 wacky seasons to have episodes where Shredder actually blowing up the Channel 6 building....drastic change...posibly for the better...but not inthe eyes of this Old toon purest who wants his old school tmnt wacky and not, well like this....
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v156/Jesterangalo/Mutated_Leo2.jpg

[MrPliggins]

I would say season 9 jumped it, then season 10 started to get better again.. if it was still going today, or at least a few more seasons, its interesting to think of what it might have become. the season 9 new mutations plotline was just pointless.

[ZariusTwo]

I would say season 9 jumped it, then season 10 started to get better again.. if it was still going today, or at least a few more seasons, its interesting to think of what it might have become. the season 9 new mutations plotline was just pointless.


Season Ten sort of gets a free pass here because they brought back Shredder and Krang to give the ratings a signficant boost, "Turtles to the Tenth Power" was a decent story, but the rest of the season suffered greatly afterwards.

[pannoni1]

http://web.archive.org/web/20080301040343/http://www.jumptheshark.com/topic/Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles/Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles-General/1948?chartStart=0&chartRange=500&chartOnly=true

Even though this is a necrobump, I found the link to the old JTS.com with regards to the show and I was so happy to discover after many years of being blocked by the front door (archive.org). The problem with the site of course is that it doesn't take into account the separate universes. The later comments came at a time when 4kids was waning with Fast Forward giving way to BTTS, the 2007 movie had just been released.

With Shredder being removed being the most popular reason with nearly half of all the votes, it still shows that having the Foot leader is still important with regards to keeping viewers glued with such removal best left for a finale. Of course the first issue of Mirage, certain seasons of the OT, and the end of the third and fifth seasons of 4kids addresses this, though in most cases they were smart to bring it back with the following seasons/future issues. However, when Fred Wolf and CBS failed to bring Shredder back for Season 9, it was clear that Dregg turned at the time a popular but waning audience off to other things.

IMO as a whole TMNT first jumped in 1995 with Dregg and the end of Volume 2 along with the poor merchandise being released by Playmates, jumped back in 2003 with Volume 4 and 4kids, jumped again in 2006 with Fast Forward, and jumped back again in 2011 with IDW, though potentially another shark jump could be coming.

Many franchises actually can jump multiple times and I'm surprised people don't discover these multi-jumps more. Power Rangers for example, jumped first in 1997, jumped back the next year, jumped again with Time Force, jumped back again for Dino Thunder and SPD, jumped again with Disney, and jumped back again with Saban returning.

Of course bonethefish.com is a continuation of the former site, so continue to leave your comments there or feel free to select the TV Shows: A-Z to browse other shows on the old site.

[ZariusTwo]

Power Rangers for example, jumped first in 1997, jumped back the next year, jumped again with Time Force

jumped again with Disney

1. You do know Time Force is more or less universally loved by the fandom right?

2. DT and SPD were Disney seasons

[Spike Spiegel]

I think the OT jumped the shark after season 2.

The comic jumped the shark with the Image Comics volume 3.

The movies jumped the shark with "Secret of the Ooze."

And 2k3 jumped the shark after season 4.

I'm not sure about the 2012 series, as I haven't watched all of it.